Payback time for conventional photovoltaic (PV) cells is about 100 years, for production of domestic electricity. Whereas, payback time for solar heated water panels may be one tenth as much or less. This disparity in cost comes from the different ways the respective energy absorbing surfaces are processed. It is relatively easy to spray or electroplate a copper sheet, as is done on solar heated water panels. But, as this inventor knows from personal experience, much time and many meticulous steps are required in making PV devices. Among these steps are orienting starter crystals, pulling crystalline boules or ribbons, cutting bulk crystals and mounting many small pieces onto panels. Accordingly, much effort has been given to making PV devices faster and cheaper, using large area teachniques: spraying, dipping, baking, etc. Unfortunately, many of these efforts have been marginal at best. Failure to establish large thin single crystals (or large grains) appears to be the main inadequacy. Coated surfaces tend to dry amorphously or in countless tiny crystals of random orientation. Whereas, we need a single thin crystal or at least several large grains in each PV cell. This is in order for sunlight released electrons to move in an orderly manner in the device. The idea is to make it energetically cheaper for sunlight freed electrons to move through an external electrical loop than through the semiconductor itself. Also, we want large numbers of electrons to be freed when sunlight hits the device. By themselves, intrinsic semiconductors, such as silicon Si, do not release enough electrons to be of interest. Si-Si bonds are strong and not broken sigfificantly by sunlight. Phosphorus (P), with its outer shell electron, is doped into silicon, about one atom per million. This provides ample free electrons, without so many that they short out in the device instead of going through the external electrical load. We also need to dope the crystal with atoms which have a relative deficiency of electrons in their outer shell. This is to provide so called " holes" into which electrons can migrate. Boron is usually doped into silicon in about the same ratio as phosphorus. The effect is like having positively charged particles in the electrical loop. When sunlight hits the surface, electrons (e.sup.-) and holes (h.sup.+) move in opposite directions. This creates a difference of potential or the equivalent of a battery in the loop, and current flows accordingly. This orderly movement of electrons and holes is better offered by a doped crystalline semiconductor than by amorphous material. Any large area production technique for making PV devices should endeavor to end up with this sort of final product. For related reasons, a PV cell should not be much larger than at present, namely a few centimeters per side. We want to produce many of these at once on a large sheet of copper substrate. We want to circumvent seeding, growing and cutting bulk crystals and affixing large numbers of individual parts to a panel. If we can accomplish these things, considerable time and costs may very well be saved. We want copper for a PV substrate because that metal works best with water or freon in conventional solar heated panels. We want to combine PV and regular solar thermal panels because about ninety percent of solar energy goes through PV cells as infrared heat anyway. We may as well heat something besides roof shingles with that energy.